John teempejk



J. TREMPER. GUT-OFF GEAR FOR STEAM ENGINES.

No. 37,063. Patented Dec. 2, 1862.

Ill

ii I I'FJ win/aspen, I japan/for tion with the aforesaid tripping-leversfor the purpose of enabling the steam to be continued ATNT Orricn.

TREMPER, 0F BUFFALU, NEW YORK.

iiiiPiliJVElilENT IN VARlABLE CUT-OFF GEARS FOR STEAM-ENGINES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 3?,0'63, dated December2, 1862.

iii? n25 whom' it may concern.-

it known that 1, Joan TREMPER, of But this, in the county of Erie andState of New York, have invented a new and Improved Variable Cut-0h"Gear for Steam Engines; and I do hereby declare that the following is afull, clear, and exact description of the same, referenoe being had tothe accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which7 h Figure l is a front view of the cut-off gear and the shell whichcontains the cut-off valve. Fig. 2 is a side view of the cut-oh gear,omitting such parts of the framing as would conceal the working parts.Fig. 3 is a front view illustrating the addition of a device forcontinuing the operation beyond half-stroke. Fig. i is a plan, on alarger scale, of some of the details of the addition shown in Fig. 3.

5 is an end view of the same.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the severalfigures.

This invention consist-s in a certain novel mechanism composed of twotoothed lifters or tripping-levers jointed to two arms of a rock-shaft,and operating in combination with a toothed .block on the upright stemor rod of the cut-off valve, and with a cone or wedge connected with agovernor or otherwise made adjustable, whereby I obtain a gradualopening of the cnt-of valve for the admission of steam to theengine-cylinder, and a sudden closing of the same to out off the steamat such pointas may be required during the first half of the stroke ofthe piston; and it also consistsin certain means applied in combina onthe piston to diiierent points beyond halfstroke.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, 1 willproceed to describe it with reference to the drawin s.

A is the shell, which contains the cut-oi? valve. This valve may be ofanyknown kind, though ll prefer to use one 'thatis perfectly inalancedwhen cxposedto the action of the steam. v

a is the rod by which the valve is operated, constituting in the examplerepresented the stem of the valvegbut it may be connected "with thevalve in any suitable manner to the valve by its upward movement, thesaid rod working through a suitable fixed guide. 6, which keeps itupright, and havingapplied to it bet-ween the said guide and a collar,0, on its'lower part, a spring, d, which exerts a a constant downwardpressure, and thereby tends to' close the valve. On the upper part ofthe said rod there is firmly secured a lifting-block, B, on oppositesides of which there are two teeth, e e, which are acted. upon by thetripping-levers to open the valve, and on another side of which there isformed a tongue, f, working between guides g g, to prevent the rod fromturning.

D is the rock-shaft by which the opening movement of the valve iseffected, arranged horizontally in abearing ina frame. M. erected uponthe shell A, with its axis in the same plane with the axis of thevalve-rod a. This rock-shaftha-s fast upon it at the end farthest fromthe valve-rod an arm, h, by which the connection is made with theeccentric on the main shaft of the engine, and it has also fast. upon itat the end next the valve-rod two arms,

E E, to which are attached the lifters or-tripping-levers F F, whichoperate upon the teeth 6 e to lift the rod and open the valve. The armsE E have a downward inclination from each other and from the rock'shaftat an angle from ninety degrees to one hundred and twenty degrees, orthereabou-t. The tripping-levers F F are attached by their lower ends bypivots't' z" to the ends of the arms E E, and are arranged on the twoopposite sides of the valve-rod on which the teeth 6 e of thelifting-block B are situated, and each has formed upon its-inner side atooth, j orj, to engage with the tooth e or e on the corresponding-sideof the lifting-block, and the parts of the inner sides of the saidlevers above their teeth jj have backward and up ward inclination, tocorrespond with the profile of the cone G, which may be either attachedto the governor in such manner as to be thereby depressed when the speedof the engine increases. and vice versa, for the purpose of governingthe engine by the variation of the point of cutting off steam, or may beadjusted by any other means tocause the cutting off of the steam at anyfixed point in the first half of the stroke of the engine-piston. Thiscone, when usedin connection with a t'romithe main shaft of the engine,causes this thecone until its tooth escapes from the corand the highestposition to which they rise is governor, may be arranged to turn freelyon the lower part of the upright rod k, which connects it; with thegovernor, or through which the governor operates to raise and lower it.Whichever way the said cone may be turned, it is in condition foroperating on the tripping-levers, and in this respect it is superior toa simple-wedge, which would require some. contrivance to prevent it fromturning and keep-its edges opposite to the trippinglevers. The twotripping-levers'are connected by a spring, I, which acts to prevent themfrom falling or slipping backward. The rocking motion of the arms E E,produced by the osnot be effected at any point in the stroke ofcillating motion of the rock-shaft -derived 1 tripping-levers each torise and fall once during each revolution of the engine, and each one,by the action of itstooth j or j, upon the corresponding tooth e or e ofthe lifting-block, lifts and opens the cut-off valve at the proper. timefor the induction of steam to the cylinder.' As each tripping-leverrises, if the cone G is in a sufficiently-low position the inclinedinner surface ofthe part of the said lever above its tooth yorj cornesincontact with and slides up the cone, and as it continues to rise it isforced outward by the wedge-like action of responding tooth of thelifting-block and permits the valve to be closed suddenly by the springand the steam to be thereby cut ofi. This escape of the tooth of thetripping-lever from the tooth of the lifting-block takes place at anearlieror later point in the stroke of the engine-piston, according asthe cone is more or less depressed, and hence when the speed of theengine begins to increase and the cone is thereby caused to bedepressed, the escape of the tripping-lever takes place at an earlierpoint in the stroke, and when the speed is di- 'minislied and the coneallowed or caused to rise the escape of the tripping-lever takes placelater, and in this way the cut-off is made to regulate the speed of theengine. In the downward movement of the tripping-pieces with the arms EE they are gradually drawn toward the lifting-block by the springlasfast as permitted by the cone, and their teeth slip over and pass underthe teeth of the lifting block ready for a'new lift.

By the arrangement of the arms E E at such an angle to each other belowthe rock-shaft, as hcreinbcfore described, their operation is caused tobe within the lower halfof a circle,

not above a horizontal one, and hence their movement is at first veryslow and gradually faster, and they are thereby caused to open the valvewith a. very slow movement, corresponding ncarl y with that of theengine-piston at the commencement of its stroke, and 'as the piston ismoving faster the valve opens quicker to produce a desirable progressiveincrease in the supply of steamto the cylinder. In order to stop thecut-oft when closed withoutviolent concussion, the upper part of theguide b is hollowed out concentric with the rod or in the form of a cup,and has applied within the cuplike cavity a ring or rings, n, ofvulcanized india-rubber, cork, or other elastic material, to form acushion, and the bottom of the lift ing-block B is made of a form toenter thesaid cup, and so arranged or of such depth that it will come incontact with the cushion it when the valve in its descent arrives in aclosed condition. The lifting-block is thus made to serve the additionalpurpose of a stop to the valve. As the liberation ofthe valve by theaction of the cone on the tripping-levers canthe piston beyondhalf-stroke, I propose to use in connection with them, in enginesinwhich it is desirable to cut 05 beyond half-stroke, the contrivanceshown in Figs. 3, 4, and 5. In those figures N is a short bar securedlirml y to one side of the frame. M, and projecting horizontallytherefrom toward the rod a and tripping-levers F Fin a directionperpendicular to the planes of oscillation of the said leversi This baris slotted horizontally, for the reception of portions of two slides, Pl",which are fitted toit in such manner as to be capable ofslidingtoward and from the sides ofthe tripping-levers, and these slides-areconnected rigidly together by ashort transverse pin, 1), which crossesthe central verticalslot, r, of the bar N. This slot receives within ita plate, Q, (see Fig. 3,) which is suspended vertically from 1- suitableconnection with the governor in such manner as to move up and down withthe cone G. This piate contains a vertical slot 8, which is fitted to afixed pin, t, secured across the slot-r of the bar N, and the said platealso contains an oblique slot, 8, which fits to the pin 2, and as thesaid plate is caused to move upward and downward with or by the governorthe slot .9 and pin tkeep it vertical, and the faces of the obliqueslots act as wedges upon the nin p, and cause it to move theslides I P Pfrom and toward the tripping-levers, one of them being arranged oppositeto each of said levers. To the twoslides there are attached by pins u utwo laterally-swinging toes, R B, one to each slide. These toes haveapplied to them springs r a, which tend to press them toward each otherand hold them within grooves provided in slides for their reception; butportions of the said toes project beyond the ends of the slides towardthe tripping-levers, and these portions-are beveled on their innersides, as shown at w w in Fig. 5, and on their outer sides, as shown atx w in same figure, the bevel on the outer side being oblique, both in adirection lateral andlongitudinal to the said toes, and making the uppersides, 3 3 of the taper form shown in Fig. 1. These, upper sides arealso slightly beveled,to give them a downward inclination toward theouter side, as shown in Fig. 5. In each one of the tripping-levers thereis secured a pin, 6, which operates in the following manner, incombination with the toes R R: The valverod is brought down by thespring (I to such a position-as to bring the pins 6 6 below the toes,and when the tripping-levers are not thrown out by thecone before theascent of the said levers is completed, the pins are "brought toposition above the toes. In moving upward the said pins work in contactwith the inner beveled faces, 10 w, of the toes andpnsh them aside,-and,;when the said pins rise above thetoes thelatt-er springbackagaininto or toward the slides PP, and thepins have to descend onisideof 'thetoes, and in such descent they are pressed outward in such manner as tothrow aside the tripping-levers from the lifting'block and liberate thevalve, It has been before stated that the plate Q moves up and down withthe cone G, and in that moving upand down it moves the slides .P P andtheir attached toes R R longitudinally toward and fromthe.tripping-levers, and the lower it is depressed by the governor-thefarther the toes will be pushed toward the tripping levers and under thepins 66. When the toes are presented far under the pins as is the casewhen the plate Q and cone Gare depressed nearly far enough to make thelatter throw off the tripping'levers, the pins, iii-being brought downinto contact with the wide portion of the upper inclinedsnrlaces, y y,of the toes, are

caused to slip'qnickly across the said surfaces and drop over theoutside of the toes, and so made to throw the trippinglevers from under,the lifting'bloclr almost as soon as the descent of the tripping ielverscommences, and hence permit the valve to remain open very little longerthan if the tripping-levers had been thrown out by the cone; but whenthe toes are presented a less distance under the pins, as is the casewhen the plate Q and cone G are not so much depressed, the pins descendon the narrower portions of the surfaces 3/ y, and, though they slipquickly across those portions of the surfaces, they are caught by thesurfaces was, down which they pass more gradually,and by which they arecaused to draw the tripp nglevers more gradually from under theliftingblock, and so keep the valve open during a longer portion of thestroke.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

l. The attachment of the lifters or trippinglevers F F by pivot-jointsto two arms, E E, which are soar-ranged upon a roelrshaft or itsequivalent as to work below the axis thereof, and-socanse the opening ofthe valve slowlyat first and with agradually-increasing velocity,-substantially as and for the purpose herein specified.-

2. The combination of the lifters or trippinglevers F F, applied asabove specified, the lifting-block B, and the cone G, substantially asand for the purpose herein set forth.

3. The arrangement of the lifters or trinpinglevers F F and the toothedlifting-block B, in combination with the rock-shaft D andacone, G,connected with the governor or otherwise controlled, substantialiy asherein specified.

4s. The mechanism shown in Figs. 3, 4, and 5, and herein described, fortripping the levers F F in their downward motion, substantially as andfor the purpose herein set forth.

JOHN TREMPER. Witnesses:

JAMES LAIRID, It. GAWLEY.

